This is a great variation on the classic Italian bread – you have to use a LOT of oil… no, really.
I stole this recipe wholesale from my good friend Robin Rea at the Rusty Pig in Ottery St Mary, Devon. I’ve tweaked it a little to make it mine, but Robin still deserves credit for giving me the idea.
Ingredients
- 450g strong white organic flour
- 75g fine organic semolina
- 10g salt
- 350ml water
- 15g dried fast action yeast organic
- 10 strands good saffron
- Sea salt, rosemary and really good olive oil.
Method
Soak the saffron in the water and add the yeast – leave for at least an hour.
Mix the flour with the semolina and add the salt – now add the yeast and saffron water and work into a soft and lightly sticky dough.
Allow the dough to rise once for two to three hours depending on room temperature, then carefully transfer it to a non-stick baking surface.
Lightly oil your hands and shape the dough so that all its edges are tucked under.
Now oil the dough well and cover lightly as it proves again.
When the dough has proved almost to the point of collapse, add a little more oil and gently tease the dough outwards using your finger tips to create indentations and stretch the dough. Imagine you have an elastic band holding all your fingers together and you need to push them apart – that’s the motion to use.
Oil yet again (yes, really) and sprinkle with sea salt and chopped rosemary then leave to stand for just another few minutes before baking in a fierce oven at 220 ˚C/ESSE dial guide HOT (Aim for the dial reading to be at the top end of HOT) without steam for 21 minutes.
Recipe provided by Tim Maddams.
